Corvus corone, (Linn.), Jerdon B. Ind. ii, p. 295; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 659*
*[Mr. Hume, at one time separated the Indian Carrion-Crow from Corvus corone under the name C. pseudo-corone. In his 'Catalogue' he re-unites them. I quite agree with him that the two birds are inseparable.--ED.]
The only Indian eggs of the Carrion Crow which I have seen, and one of which, with the parent bird, I owe to Mr. Brooks, were taken by the latter gentleman on the 30th May at Sonamerg, Kashmir.
The eggs were broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end, and of the regular Corvine type - a pretty pale green ground, blotched, smeared, streaked, spotted, and clouded, nowhere very profusely but most densely about the large end, with a greenish or olive-brown and pale sepia. The brown is a brighter and greener, or duller and more olive, lighter or darker, in different eggs, and even in different parts of the same egg. The shell is fine and close, but has only a faint gloss.
The eggs only varied from 1·67 to 1·68 in length, and from 1·14 to 1·18 in breadth.
Whether this bird breeds regularly or only as a straggler in Kashmir we do not know; it is always overlooked and passed by as a "Common Crow." Future visitors to Kashmir should try and clear up both the identity of the bird and all particulars about its nidification.
